Thompson v. Sioux Falls National Bank

Citations

• 150 U.S. 231
• 14 S. Ct. 94
• 37 L. Ed. 1063
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2377

Syllabus

<p>In an action at law against a bank to recover on a cheque drawn and issued by its cashier, if it be admitted that the cheque was obtained without consideration, and was invalid in the hands of the immediate payee, the plaintiff must prove either that he was a bona fide holder, or that the person from whom he received the paper had taken it for value without notice of defect in its inception.</p> <p>A bank, knowing that the county treasurer of the county had not sufficient county funds in his hands to balance his official accounts, consented to givd him a fictitious credit in order to enable him to impose upon the county commissioners, who were about to examine his accounts. They accordingly gave him a “cashier’s check” for $16,571.61, which he. endorsed and took to the commissioners. They received it, but refused to discharge him or his bondsmen, and placed the cheque, and such funds-ás he had in cash in a box and delivered them to his bondsmen. The latter deposited the money and the cheque in another bank in the same place, which bank brought suit against the bank which issued the cheque to recover upon it. Held,</p> <p>(1) That the circumstances under which the cheque.was issued were a plain fraud upon the law, and also upon the county commissioners ;</p> <p>(2) That their receipt of it and turning it over to the sureties was. a single act, intended to assist the sureties in protecting, themselves, and was inconsistent with the idea of releasing them from tlieir obligation;</p> <p>(3) That the question whether the evidence did or did not establish the fact that the county was an innocent holder should have been submitted to the jury.</p>